This is a practical master thesis containing a short film called I Walk Alone (2010) and a textual analysis of this short film. As the audience is what makes a film successful or not, the thesis is concerned with the mystery of what catches an audience. The textual analysis is concerned with character engagement, using cognitive film theory, and specifically the structure of sympathy by Murray Smith (1995). The analysis reveals the potential of engagement for the characters in I Walk Alone, and that one of the four characters may have a potential to engage an audience, while two of the other characters may be hard to recognize in parts of the narrative. The latter underlines the importance of the first level of engagement in the structure of sympathy which is called recognition, a field that Smith suggests has not been studied much as it is often taken for granted. The structure of sympathy also reveals the importance of the engagement in characters, and although this theoretical framework cannot tell us whether a film will be successful, it can help us understand what is necessary to invite an audience to engage in a film’s characters. The short film I Walk Alone is a practical exploration of the boundaries between art film and classical Hollywood narrative.